By Edward S. Herman - Z Mag

So we see in this country not a revitalized Democratic Party working congruently with the needs of this culture and demands of fundamental change, but one so paralyzed by dependence on money and internal divisions that it is unable to mount a credible defense of a sinking welfare state and finds it easier to go after “terrorists” and join in the fight to contain the debt.

By ALBERTO C. RUIZ - Counterpunch Weekend Edition

...[W]hether or not the [AFL-CIO's] Solidarity Center...has actually possessed the intention to overthrow the Chavista government in Venezuela, the Solidarity Center has and continues to carry out activities which objectively serve the destabilization goals of the U.S. foreign policy interests which fund those activities...All of this is truly disturbing, and indeed, reprehensible.

Obama's thirdworldizing America. He's ideologically over-the-top. He's waging war living standards. He's targeting the nation's social contract.

US democracy is illusory. America never was beautiful. It's not the land of the free and home of the brave. It wasn't created that way. More than ever, it's not now.

By David Walsh - WSWS

New information has emerged exposing the level of collaboration between the CIA and the makers of the pro-torture Zero Dark Thirty, screenwriter Mark Boal and director Kathryn Bigelow. In fact, the reports reveal that the US intelligence agency vetted the film script and insisted on significant changes that Boal subsequently carried out.

By Ryan Abbott - May 10, 2013

Baltimore police beat up a woman and smashed her camera for filming them beating up a man, telling her: "You want to film something bitch? Film this!"...Makia Smith sued the Baltimore Police Department, Police Commissioner Anthony Batts and police Officers Nathan Church, William Pilkerton, Jr., Nathan Ulmer and Kenneth Campbell in Federal Court.

Whether Shabbaz was an imperial victim isn't known. His death remains suspicious. Challenging imperial lawlessness is risky. It's price sometimes is death.

By Tom Carter - 11 May 2013

Teenager Cameron D’Ambrosio faces up to 20 years in prison on “terror” charges for making reference to the Boston Marathon bombings in a Facebook post...The prosecution of D’Ambrosio has all the hallmarks of a calculated test case, designed to roll back further the protections of the First Amendment and flex the state’s expanding power to regulate speech. It is designed to send a message that under the new legal framework imposed in the course of the so-called “war on terror,” people have to “watch what they say.”

Earlier this week, on Wednesday, May 8, lawyers for Russell ‘Maroon’ Shoatz filed a federal lawsuit regarding his placement in solitary confinement for over 22 consecutive years. The written complaint is directed at Pennsylvania Department of Corrections Secretary John Wetzel and the Superintendents of SCI-Greene, where Shoatz was last held, and SCI-Mahanoy, where he was transferred to on March 28, 2013.

By Bill Fletcher - May 10, 2013

Assata Shakur has never denied having been a member of the Black Liberation Army. She has also never denied being a revolutionary. She has a very well developed critique of US capitalism, imperialism and racism. In no case has anything ever associated with terrorism been alleged against her...[T]he armed actions that were taken never conformed to any approximation of the notion of “terrorism,” i.e., the use of military/violent actions against civilians in order to advance a political agenda.

May 3, 2013 - Davey D's Hip-Hop Corner

Here’s some people who need to be on the FBI’s Most Wanted Terrorist List as Opposed to Assata Shakur:

Capital punishment is barbaric, unjust and unconscionable. It's the ultimate denial of human rights. Nothing justifies state-sponsored murder.

By Alex Kane - May 7, 2013

A student who was arrested and beaten for falling asleep at school is now suing an Alabama city, its police department and some school employees for civil rights violation, battery and negligent supervision and hiring...[A]fter the diabetic student fell asleep while in a room reserved for “in school suspensions,” a school police officer slammed her face into a cabinet and then arrested her.

On May 1, Obama nominated Watt to head the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA).

By Assata Shakur - May 08, 2013

My name is Assata Shakur...Because of government persecution, I was left with no other choice than to flee from the political repression, racism and violence that dominate the US government’s policy towards people of color. I am an ex-political prisoner, and I have been living in exile in Cuba since 1984...I have been a political activist most of my life, and although the U.S. government has done everything in its power to criminalize me, I am not a criminal, nor have I ever been one.